Tag: Overpriced

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Two married former Tustin California police officers have been accused of workers’ compensation fraud after they allegedly took part in mountain biking, boating, international scuba diving trips and home repair projects despite claiming to be disabled.

Married ex-Tustin police officers charged with workers’ compensation fraud

Two married former Tustin police officers have been accused of workers’ compensation fraud after they allegedly took part in mountain biking, boating, international scuba diving trips and home repair projects despite claiming to be disabled.

Kendal Hurd, 40, and her husband Kyle Hurd, 38, have both been charged with multiple felony counts of insurance fraud, as well as perjury and attempted perjury, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Citing video surveillance — as well as the couple’s own photos and videos — prosecutors allege that they led an active lifestyle despite claiming to suffer from constant back pain they attributed to wearing police duty belts and gear and getting in and out of their patrol cars. At one point, prosecutors allege, Kyle Hurd sent a text to a friend that “bragged about receiving unnecessary medical treatment because he was a good actor.”

The couple collected more than $188,000 while on disability, according to the DA Office.

Prosecutors said the two told their workers’ compensation doctors that “their pain increased with activity and improved with rest.” But when months of medical care didn’t lead to any reported improvement, the city of Tustin initiated surveillance of the couple.

While under that surveillance, prosecutors said, the couple was spotted sliding down a water slide, lifting children, riding bikes, paddle boarding, going to Pilates classes and playing in the water at Lake Mission Viejo.

Kendal Hurd worked as an officer in Santa Barbara before joining the Tustin Police Department in 2015, prosecutors said, while Kyle Hurd worked as an officer in Montclair before transferring to Tustin in 2014. Both were reportedly terminated from the Tustin Police Department in July 2021.

“Workers’ compensation fraud results in honest, hardworking business and government entities losing more than $30 billion a year,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “This is such an egregious breach of the public’s trust by two people who were sworn to uphold our laws, not break them. We will not allow those who commit workers’ compensation fraud to go unpunished, and we will do everything we can to return the fraudulently paid money back to the taxpayers of Tustin.”

If convicted of the charges they currently face, Kendal Hurd faces up to 11 years in state prison, while Kyle Hurd faces up to nine years and six months behind bars.

Married ex-Tustin police officers charged with workers’ compensation fraud
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I’m on my 3rd Electrician Now and We Still can’t Find the Wire that My “Supposedly Green Energy” Comes In On – He Says it’s “All the Same Electricity” – You don’t think that this OC Power Authority and Green Electricity is One Big Fraud Do Ya? Huntington Beach pulls out of OC’s green power agency

Huntington Beach pulls out of OC’s green power agency

It’s the first city to pull out of OCPA — and the agency’s board expects to see a “financial impact”

Huntington Beach is pulling out of the Orange County Power Authority, a decision made by a split City Council late Tuesday night.

While the county withdrew last year, Huntington Beach is the first city to remove itself from the green power agency.

“Since the very beginning, the Orange County Power Authority has been a total disaster and doomed for failure,” said Councilmember Casey McKeon, who represents Huntington Beach on the agency’s board. “I believe in providing choice to consumers, but I don’t believe the government is a vehicle to providing choice in the private sector, especially not in the incredibly complex and volatile energy market.”

McKeon, along with Mayor Tony Strickland and fellow councilmembers Pat Burns and Gracey Van Der Mark voted to withdraw from the OCPA during a special council meeting added for after Tuesday’s regular meeting, May 16.

Councilmembers Dan Kalmick, Natalie Moser and Rhonda Bolton voted to stay.

Expressing concern with the OCPA’s ability to procure additional energy, McKeon said Southern California Edison is better equipped to obtain resources to protect the grid, making it a “safer option for our residents.”

But Kalmick argued there is still too much unknown about how the decision to leave will impact Huntington Beach residents.

“We have no idea what this is going to cost,” Kalmick said, suggesting the city should hire a consultant who could prep the city on the implications of its decision.

A timeline of next steps, including when residents and businesses will begin to see changes, is still being worked out, Strickland said Wednesday.

“We are deeply disappointed with the reckless action the Huntington Beach City Council has taken to withdraw from the Orange County Power Authority,” said its board chair Fred Jung, who is also the mayor of Fullerton. “Not only does this eliminate the opportunity for Huntington Beach to take bold steps against climate change, it strips away renewable energy choice from its residents and businesses.”

Huntington Beach announced the special meeting Monday evening, adhering to the 24-hour notice it must give residents. Several residents provided comments ahead of the meeting, decrying the quickly called meeting, with no staff report on the potential impacts.

And it was “sudden,” too, for the OCPA board, said Jung.

“The staff at Huntington Beach did not telegraph this, nor did they let our staff know at the Power Authority that this was a consideration for them,” Jung said.

“Huntington Beach families and businesses want and deserve an alternative to the decades-long fossil fuels-powered SCE monopoly,” he said. “Huntington Beach has put politics ahead of the health and well-being of those who call Huntington Beach home.”

The OCPA board, fired CEO Brian Probolsky last month and later appointed its director of communications to helm the agency in the interim.

Huntington Beach is the second-largest entity that is part of the OCPA, Jung said, noting “there will be a financial impact” to the City Council’s decision.

Aside from Huntington Beach and Fullerton, the OCPA serves Buena Park and Irvine.

Irvine, which has opted to stick with OCPA during recent council meetings, is slated to bring it back up next week.

“I understand what Huntington Beach has done, and I believe Irvine should do the same thing,” said Irvine Councilmember Larry Agran, who has voted to withdraw in the past. “My job is to protect Irvine ratepayers and taxpayers, and I think the best protection was getting out as soon as possible.”

The OCPA launched in 2020 as an alternative to Southern California Edison, offering more renewable energy blends as the county’s first community choice energy program. Both residential and commercial customers receive power purchased through the agency.

However, it was not without controversy. An audit by the Orange County Grand Jury, reviews by the county and a state audit all critiqued the OCPA, particularly its leadership, for its management, pricing strategies and transparency.

The OCPA has since implemented 80% of the reports’ recommendations, with the rest slated to be completed in the coming months, Jung said. Leadership, from the CEO to general counsel, has been removed; the board has more oversight; and the CEO’s unilateral ability to sign off on certain items has been scaled back, he said. And it lowered the rates for its “Basic Choice” plan to below the Southern California Edison equivalent.

“By the end of the summer, the Orange County Power Authority will be a beacon of what community choice energy aggregates can be,” he said.

The new Huntington Beach council leaders have eyed potential changes to the city’s agreement with OCPA since the new majority took over late last year.

Huntington Beach pulls out of OC’s green power agency
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CAL AMSTERDAM – California Sees Mass Legal Cannabis Exodus – Jerry Garcia’s Grateful Dead cannabis brand is leaving California

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Jerry Garcia is one of the most iconic pot smokers in California history. Born in San Francisco, Garcia led the Grateful Dead for 30 years as the city became an international beacon of counterculture, and he did it all while casually and openly smoking weed. His pot pipe is considered an artifact of California cannabis history.

But even the iconic Jerry Garcia name couldn’t survive California’s turbulent legal pot market.

The Garcia Hand Picked brand, launched by the deceased musician’s family in 2020, has pulled out of the state, a spokesperson confirmed to SFGATE. Garcia’s exit comes as cannabis insiders predict a “mass extinction event” for California’s pot industry, with thousands of companies expected to go out of business this year.

Andrew DeAngelo, a cannabis consultant and former owner of Harborside, one of the state’s pioneering medical cannabis dispensaries, said the Garcia brand probably learned the same thing that all of California’s pot companies have realized: “You can’t make any money in this market.”

“Not only is Garcia leaving, a lot of people are leaving,” DeAngelo told SFGATE. “It’s a real shame that California is losing out. We’re losing out on jobs and economic activity and other places are benefiting from that.”

Garcia Hand Picked, like most celebrity brands, contracted out its cannabis growing and manufacturing to partner companies and then stamped Jerry Garcia’s face on the packaging. The company said they are looking for a new cannabis supplier, but declined to be interviewed for this story and did not elaborate on how long the brand would be on hiatus in California. Garcia Hand Picked is still available in five other states.

“We’re taking a pause in California. We want to ensure CA consumers have the highest quality flower for the long term, so we are in the process of choosing a new local partner for cultivation, production, sales and distribution of Garcia Hand Picked in CA,” a spokesperson from Holistic Industries, the brand’s parent company, said in an email to SFGATE.

California’s cannabis industry has faced huge economic hurdles in its first four years of legal sales. The state’s complicated cannabis regulations and high taxes add costs to legal operators, while widespread illegal farms and retailers undercuts legitimate companies. Limited access to banking means these companies pay exorbitant fees for simple banking services and have almost no access to loans. Federal law blocks pot companies from deducting most business taxes from their federal taxes, making pot businesses pay an effective federal tax rate as high as 80%.

These factors have come together to make California a painful place to run a legal pot business. The majority of small legacy cannabis farms are on their way out of business and even the country’s biggest cannabis companies are leaving the state.

Nearly a dozen states had legalized cannabis by the time Jerry Garcia’s surviving family members decided to start a pot brand built around the Grateful Dead frontman, who died of a heart attack in 1995. But the Garcias chose to launch their brand in California, the same place that Jerry was born, spearheaded an artistic movement, and died.

The Golden State featured prominently in that initial launch. An airstream painted with swirling psychedelic colors crisscrossed the state in late 2020 announcing the new brand. Esquire profiled the family as they smoked a bong in Oakland and asked, “If Jerry Garcia were a kind of weed, what would the high feel like?” The family told Esquire they were planning on opening a Jerry Garcia-themed cannabis consumption lounge at a dispensary in San Francisco, which never materialized.

Nearly a dozen states had legalized cannabis by the time Jerry Garcia’s surviving family members decided to start a pot brand built around the Grateful Dead frontman, who died of a heart attack in 1995. But the Garcias chose to launch their brand in California, the same place that Jerry was born, spearheaded an artistic movement, and died.

The Golden State featured prominently in that initial launch. An airstream painted with swirling psychedelic colors crisscrossed the state in late 2020 announcing the new brand. Esquire profiled the family as they smoked a bong in Oakland and asked, “If Jerry Garcia were a kind of weed, what would the high feel like?” The family told Esquire they were planning on opening a Jerry Garcia-themed cannabis consumption lounge at a dispensary in San Francisco, which never materialized.

The Garcia brand’s departure is also a sign that customers could be getting tired of celebrity pot brands. There are so many famous people selling weed that even the rock stars are noticing that it might not be an easy business to get into: David Crosby told the Los Angeles Times last year that he wanted to start his own pot brand but said, “Celebrity brands didn’t turn out to work nearly as well as anyone thought they were gunna.”

Indeed, Garcia Hand Picked isn’t even the first Grateful Dead pot brand. Drummer Mickey Hart launched his own pre-rolled joint brand called Mind your Head in 2019, although that brand also appears to be on hiatus. Its website is down and a brand representative could be contacted for this story.

Garcia Hand Picked and Mind Your Head could come back to the state, but for now, Deadheads in California will have to get by without smoking any cannabis blessed by the legendary band.

https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/jerry-garcia-cannabis-leaving-california-17741843.php

Hangar Fire - "Without Litigation" - City of Tustin Already On the Hook for $90 Million in Clean-Up Costs - "Not Including the Actual Hangar Property" - and Heading for a Billion Dollars - Developers Likely Not Off the Hook Either - Property Value Assessments Undergoing Official Review - Ask Yourself - Would You Buy or Rent at the Tustin Legacy - Remember there's "Another" Hangar Too
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